


Look at this Photograph

by ProbablyVoldemort



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien is a Stock Photo Model, F/M, Humor, Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-16
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-12-30 10:11:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12106458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProbablyVoldemort/pseuds/ProbablyVoldemort
Summary: Nino's apartment is full of unused picture frames, but he claims to know the blond stock photo model that lives in each one.  Everyone else is a little more skeptical of his (imaginary) friend.





	Look at this Photograph

**Author's Note:**

> That feel when your study break consists of watching that episode of Friends where it turns out Phoebe's grandma had convinced her for years that a stock photo model was her father and turns into inspiration for a fic.
> 
> (Yes, the title is from the Nickelback song. No, I'm not sorry for getting it stuck in your head.)
> 
> Anyway, in this AU Adrien does not model clothes and instead models for picture frames. Don't ask me why because I don't know. Maybe Gabriel Agreste runs a picture frame company or something. I don't know. It's not important.
> 
> Also there's a lot of Kim in this fic because Kim is cool and my bro and I've been meaning to write him again. So he's here.
> 
> Anyway, please enjoy! :D

Marinette had always had a bit of a crush on the blond who’d been appearing in the stock photos that came in picture frames for as long as she could remember.  It was never anything serious, the type of crush you get on a stranger on the metro, or on the guy who held the door open for you.  Nothing particularly lasting and more of a  _ huh, you’re cute.  I’d definitely make out with you if I got the chance. _  That sort of thing.

But, other than absently admiring his attractiveness as she replaced his photo with one of her own, Marinette hadn’t really thought too much about the Picture Frame Guy, as he was later dubbed, for the first twenty years of her life.

But all that changed on the third Tuesday of September.

Marinette shook the rain from her hair as she and Alya darted into Nino’s apartment building.

“Why does Paris need to rain so much?” Alya wondered, folding up the umbrella that had been practically useless in the storm.  “Do the gods hate us?  Or Hawkmoth?  I feel like he just generally controls the weather and wants us to suffer.”

Marinette snorted, rubbing her hands together in hopes of regaining feeling in her fingertips.  “I don’t think that’s part of Hawkmoth’s powers,” she said.  “Let’s go.  Maybe Nino’s got some hot chocolate for us.”

“Nino probably doesn’t even have any groceries,” Alya pointed out, but complied in heading for the stairs.  “Nino can’t adult if his life depended on it.  Which it does.”

“He invited us over for dinner,” Marinette reminded her friend.  “He better have some groceries.”

The reached Nino’s floor and knocked, bouncing from foot to foot in an attempt to warm up.

Kim opened the door, wearing nothing but a towel, and had a steaming mug in one hand.

“Yes,” Marinette hissed, taking the mug and basking in its warmth.  “Have I ever told you I love you, Kim?  Because I do.  You’re the new love of my life.  Chat Noir who?”

Kim laughed and mussed up her hair as she made her way inside.  “Only in my dreams, DC,” he said, starting back towards the kitchen.  “Do you want me to make you your own cup?”

Marinette hummed the affirmative, pressing her face against Kim’s hot chocolate.  “I’m gonna hold yours hostage though.”

Alya rolled her eyes, peeling off her wet jacket.  “Maybe put on some clothes first,” she suggested.  “That’s usually what people do when they have company over.”

Kim raised an eyebrow, posing against the counter with the kettle in one hand, flexing his other arm.  “You’re not enjoying the show, Al?”

Alya rolled her eyes again.  “I’m gonna go change into some of Nino’s stuff, and you’d better be wearing pants when I come back.”

It wasn’t until a few minutes later, when a now pants-wearing Kim pried his mug from her fingers to replace it with her own, that Marinette realized she hadn’t even taken off her shoes and was still dripping and shivering just inside the door.  She shucked her jacket and shoes and accepted Kim’s offered sweatshirt -- the body of which hung past her knees while the arms were about twice as long as they needed to be -- before taking her mug.

“You joining us for dinner?” she wondered, crossing the room and curling into the couch while she watched Kim concentrate on his tie in the mirror by the door.

“Nah,” he said.  “I’ve got to head to work.”  He met her eyes in the mirror, a smirk spreading on his face.  “But, between me and you, I don’t think Nino has anything planned foodwise, and the only food in the fridge with his name on it is a mouldy sandwich, so I think I’m getting the better end of the deal.”

Marinette laughed, having already figured they’d probably be ordering pizza, and took a sip of her hot chocolate as Kim disappeared back into his own room.

Alya emerged then, dressed in Nino’s clothes and tugging her boyfriend along behind her.  “Look who was still asleep,” she said, tossing him onto the couch.  “Who invites people over for dinner and doesn’t wake up to greet them?”

“Kim says he doesn’t have any food either,” Marinette added, glancing at the rumpled boy next to her.  “Unless your plan is mouldy sandwich for dinner?”

Nino rubbed the sleep from his eyes.  “The plan was ordering pizza and stealing Kim’s alcohol once he goes to work,” he mumbled.  “And he knows that sandwich is Max’s experiment.  It’s not my fault his boyfriend used one of my containers for it.”

Alya squeezed into the empty space in the middle of the couch, starting on about something or other, and Marinette’s attention drifted to the new collection of picture frames near the television.  Which wasn’t odd, per se, considering Kim tended to buy anything that claimed to be on sale, and neither she nor Alya had been to the apartment in a few months.

No, the frames themselves were not the issue, despite there being a couple dozen at least scattered around the room, now that Marinette was paying attention.  The issue came from what was in the frames.  Or, more accurately, who.

“Nino,” she said, slipping an arm from her sweater cocoon to pull one of the frames off an end table.  “You realize you’re supposed to take these pictures out and put your own in, right?”  Though, she had to admit, the blond stock photo guy was looking particularly attractive with his “girlfriend” in front of a fireworks show in this particular frame.

Nino reached over his girlfriend, rolling his eyes as he took the frame from her grasp.  “I know,” he agreed, and Marinette was ready to write the frames off as Kim’s until he continued.  “I’m friends with him, and they really embarrass him whenever he comes over.”

Marinette and Alya shared a look.

“Really?” Alya asked, eyebrow raised as she turned back to her boyfriend.  “That’s the story you’re going with?  You know the hot blond picture frame guy?”

“I do!” Nino insisted.  “His name’s Adrien.  I’ve told you guys about him before.”

Nino had, in fact, told them about Adrien before, the mysterious new friend that Nino had met at a club a few months ago that was always too busy to join them for hangouts.  Marinette had believed him, too, but now she wasn’t so sure.

“If he’s your friend,” she said slowly, taking in the multiple pictures of “Adrien” by a hot air balloon, barbecuing with his “family”, proposing to the fireworks girl under the Eiffel Tower, “why are all your pictures of him stock photos?”

Nino rolled his eyes, starting to dig around in the couch.  “Because Alya’s the one who always thinks to take pictures, not me,” he said, pulling his phone out from under the cushions.  “And, like I said, they embarrass him.  It’s funny.”

Marinette and Alya shared another look, this one full of disbelief and a little pity.

“Sure,” Marinette agreed, planning to drop the topic at that.  If Nino wanted to pretend he was friends with the picture frame model, that was his decision.

But Alya, it seemed, planned to milk this for all it was worth.

“Babe, you know you don’t have to pretend you’re friends with the Picture Frame Guy, right?” she said, stroking her boyfriend’s cheek in mock comfort.  “Like, you can actually go outside and make real live friends?”

Nino shoved her away and rolled his eyes, brandishing his phone in triumph.  “He’s real,” he insisted.  “We’re Facebook friends.”

Marinette leaned into Alya as her friend took the phone, scrolling through the mostly empty page of Adrien Agreste.  It was made around the same time Nino had first mentioned the dubious existence of his “friend”, and the entire contents included a profile picture -- him, leaning against a fence and smile-laughing at something off camera, a photo that was suspiciously similar to one on the coffee table -- and a cover photo -- him again, hanging from a tree branch in exactly the same way as he did in a frame on the kitchen counter.

Needless to say, the profile didn’t do much to support Nino’s claims that this was, in fact, a real person.

Alya switched into his friends, and Marinette’s eyebrows rose.

“Wow,” Alya said, handing the phone back.  “Those two friends he has sure convinced me.”

“How’d you get Chloe in on this?” Marinette wanted to know.  Chloe had gotten better since they were fourteen, sure, but she wasn’t usually one to pull a prank with Nino.

Nino rolled his eyes.  “It’s not a fucking prank,” he insisted.  “Me and Adrien are friends.  He’s pretty cool, too, once you get past the puns.”

Alya snorted, already calling Chloe on speaker on her own phone.

_ “Hello?” _

“Hey, Chloe,” she said.  “It’s Alya and Mari and Nino.”

_ “What do you need?  I’m heading out.” _

“Is Adrien real?  Or did Nino make him up?”

Chloe was quiet for a moment.   _ “Like Adrien Agreste?  Of course he’s real.  Why would Nino make him up?” _

Nino shot them a triumphant smirk, but Marinette rolled her eyes.

“Sorry, Chloe, but we can’t trust you,” she said.  “You’re friends with him on Facebook, so that means you’re in on it.”

_ “What are you--you know what?  I don’t have time for this.  Talk to me when you’re ready to not be weird.” _

She hung up, and all eyes were back on Nino.

“He’s real,” he said again, and Kim emerged from his room, hair slicked back and suit perfected.

“Who’s real?”

“Adrien.”  Nino sunk further into the couch, as if he already knew what Kim’s answer was going to be.

“I mean,” he said, shrugging, “you keep saying that, but I’ve yet to actually meet the guy.”

Alya laughed, and Marinette tried to hide her own snickers, and Nino just groaned.

“It’s not my fault you work weird hours, Monsieur If-I-Tell-You-What-I-Do-For-A-Living-I’d-Have-To-Kill-You,” he pointed out, and Kim shrugged again.

“Fair enough,” he agreed.  “But I’m still not going to believe you until I’ve met the Picture Frame Guy.”  He paused at the doorway, shrugging on a more waterproof jacket.  “I’ll probably be back by morning.”

The others waved their goodbyes as Kim left, and then Marinette and Alya’s attention was back on Nino.

“I definitely agree with Kim,” Alya said, and Nino groaned again before topics changed to what kind of pizza they should order for dinner.

  
  


Ladybug wheezed with laughter, leaning into Chat Noir as he finished his story about a coworker.

“And that’s why we’re not allowed grapes at work anymore,” he finished, chuckling along with her.  “Or monkeys.”

“Where do you even work?” Ladybug asked, once she’d got her giggles under control.  She felt Chat stiffen under her, and winced at her careless words.  “Sorry.”

“It’s all good.”  He offered her a small smile.  “I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you anyway.”

Ladybug didn’t act on the spark of curiosity that that drew, only sighed and leaned further into him, silently promising that she’d be ready soon.

“So what’s new in your life?” he wondered, and Ladybug contemplated for a moment which stories would be vague enough to tell him, before snorting.

“My friend is trying to prank his girlfriend and me,” she said, shaking her head as she remembered the night before.  “It’s not a very convincing prank, though.”

Chat smiled down at her, tightening his arm around her shoulders.  “Maybe he just needs some help from the master,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows, as though he had more than the zero pranking experience he actually had.  “What kind of prank?”

Ladybug rolled her eyes.  “So he’s been telling us for months about this new friend he made, right?  So last night we go over to his house and he’s got all these picture frames with the stock photos still in them, and they’re all of the same guy.”  She waved her hand vaguely.  “You know, the hot blond one who seems to be in every picture frame everywhere lately?”  She laughed, missing the way Chat stiffened against her.  “He’s even made up a fake name for him.

“But, anyway, he’s spent months telling us about this “Adrien” guy and then it turns out he’s just pretending he’s friends with the Picture Frame Guy.”  She snorted and shook her head, still not entirely believing how Nino thought this would make a good prank.

Chat’s laugh sounded just a little forced, and Ladybug figured that maybe this was just something you had to be there for.

“I should get going,” she sighed, trying to stand, only to be held down by Chat’s arms moving to wrap around her waist.

“No,” he whined, burying his face in her neck, and she laughed, ignoring the shiver that his breath against her skin sent down her spine.  “Don’t leave me.”

“Sorry, kitty,” she told him, patting him consolingly on the head.  “But I have to work early tomorrow, and I want to get some sleep first.”

Chat pulled away just enough to pout at her.  “Do I at least get a goodbye kiss?”

His words were teasing, his tone was anything but.  She hesitated, as she’d been doing for far too long, before slowly shaking her head.

“Not tonight,” she whispered, squeezing his hands and offering a small smile before standing.  As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t start a relationship with Chat.  Not until she was ready to share their identities.  It just wouldn’t be fair to him.  “Goodnight, Chat.”

“Goodnight, my Lady.”

He watched as she swung away, thinking back to their earlier conversation.  Ladybug’s friend was friends with him, and she didn’t believe him.  And, considering he only had two friends not including her, let alone the fact that she’d mentioned her friend was a guy, that severely narrowed down the people who their mutual friend could be.

Which meant that Nino was friends with Ladybug’s civilian self, and that he had to make time in his schedule as soon as possible to actually meet Nino’s friends.

  
  


The next few months passed, and Nino had yet to produce any real proof that “Adrien” wasn’t completely made up, and Marinette and Alya had done nothing to drop the topic.  Kim, however, had gotten in on the prank, claiming to have met him once.  He became “Adrien Agreste”’s third official Facebook friend.

Not one of his “friends”, however, could ever convince Marinette and Alya to believe.  None ever seemed to have a candid photo of the Picture Frame Guy, and any they tried to claim as one was quickly found in a picture frame add by Alya, the greatest detective of all time.

(Not that any of this stopped Alya from buying every frame she found that featured “Adrien” for Nino to add to his collection.)

So, all in all, not much changed.  Kim broke his leg on the job -- he claimed to have been fighting a shark, but, given the contracts he’d had to sign, that was literally the only thing they could actually rule out -- and was on paid leave for over a month.  Alya got a promotion at work, and the Picture Frame Guy had bailed on coming to the celebration at the last moment.  Nino bought groceries a grand total of once, and had tossed the mouldy sandwich to the disappointment of Kim’s boyfriend.

And Marinette?  Well, she’d finally worked up the nerve to do something she’d been wanting to do for years.

She paced back and forth on the rooftop, talking herself up.  She could do this.  There was absolutely nothing stopping her from doing this, and, if she didn’t do it, she was going to ban herself from eating chocolate for a month as punishment.

She jumped as someone gripped her shoulder, and spun to smile sheepishly up at Chat Noir.

“Are you okay?” he asked, looking seriously concerned for her well-being.  Not that Ladybug could blame him.  She probably looked like a mess.

“Yeah,” she said, pasting a too-big smile onto her face.  “I’m great.”

He didn’t quite look like he believed her, but didn’t press the subject, dropping his hand and taking a step away.  “We should probably get started on patrol,” he said, his hand moving to pull his baton from his waist.

She panicked.

“Wait!” she yelled, and then froze again, staring at Chat with wide eyes for far too long.

She was silent for long enough that he opened his own mouth to question her, but she couldn’t let him say anything.  If he said anything, she’d lose her nerve again.

So she closed the distance between them, grabbed his face between her hands, and crushed their faces together.

Her eyes were screwed shut, and it was not a good kiss, not at all, but could you really blame her for freezing the moment their lips touched?  With the small part of her brain that wasn’t completely exploding at the fact that she was kissing Chat Noir, technically, at least, she was deciding that she could never show her face ever again because holy shit this was embarrassing.

But then Chat seemed to come out of his own, slightly less crazed shock, and gently thread the fingers of one hand into her hair, the other wrapping around her waist to pull her closer.  And then his lips were moving against hers, forcing her to relax, and she decided that she must have died because this was clearly heaven.

He pulled back a few moments later, just far enough so they could breathe.

“What was that for?” he wondered, and she shivered at how rough his voice sounded.

“I didn’t want to wait anymore,” she whispered, cracking open her eyes to look into the dazzling green ones that were mere centimetres from her face.  “I love you.”

He laughed, breathless, and tugged her closer to pepper her face in kisses.  “I love you, too,” he whispered like a secret into her ear before pressing a kiss to the lobe.

She giggled, maneuvering his face back in front of hers and pressing their lips together once more.  

The second time she kissed Chat Noir was definitely better than the first.  As was the third.  And the fourth, and she lost count after that.

It was a while later, after kissing had turned to cuddling, that she brought up the other thing she wanted to say tonight.  Somehow it didn’t seem as scary, now that she’d actually kissed him.

“I’m ready.”

Chat hummed against the patch of skin above the neck of her suit, where he still hadn’t stopped kissing.  “For what?”

She took a deep breath.  “To tell you who I am.”

He stopped kissing her then, moving to lean above her, gazing down with wide eyes.  “Really?” he whispered, excitement seeping into his voice, and she nodded.

He tugged her up by the hand, unable to keep the giddy smile off his face.

“On three?” she suggested, her own smile threatening to break her face in half.

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

Marinette blinked at him for a moment, before laughing out loud.  “Holy shit!” she shrieked, eyes roving over him.  “You’re the Picture Frame Guy!”

He laughed, dropping one of her hands in order to run his through his hair.  “I prefer Adrien.”

Holy.  Shit.  “Your name is actually Adrien?” Marinette demanded, eyes wide.  He nodded, and she gaped at him.  “So Nino wasn’t making you up?”

He had the audacity to actually look confused.  “Why would Nino make me up?”

Marinette just laughed, leaning forward to catch his lips again.  Adrien Agreste was a pretty good name, she decided.  Nino didn’t have the imagination to make that up.

“Do I get to know your name, too?” Adrien asked, pulling back to stare at her, stars in his eyes and a dopey grin on his lips.  “Or should I just call you Bugaboo at the altar one day?”

Marinette felt herself flushing.  “Oh.  Right.  I’m Marinette.”

“Marinette,” he said, and she was already in love with the way he said her name.  “I’ve heard good things about you.”

She was confused for a second before she remembered his apparently real friendship with Nino.

“Me too,” she said, grinning up at him.  Then she shrugged.  “Probably.  I mean, I definitely thought you didn’t exist, so I don’t actually remember any of them, but they were probably good.”

Adrien laughed and captured her lips once more.

  
  


Marinette smiled at her phone, quickly typing a response to Adrien’s text.  It’d been too bad he’d had to cancel on joining them for lunch, but she’d see him that night on patrol anyway.

Alya choked on something across the table, and Marinette glanced up from her phone.

“Are you okay?” Kim asked, as they watch Nino try to stop his girlfriend from dying.

“No,” she said, sending Marinette a glare and waving her phone.  “ _ Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste are now friends.” _  She glanced back up from the screen.  “What the fuck, Mari?  Why’d you friend Nino’s imaginary friend?”

Nino rolled his eyes and returned to his harrowing task of drawing a penis on Kim’s cast.  “He’s not imaginary.”

“Not the point,” Alya snapped, before returning her focus to her friend.  “What the hell?  Why’d you go to the dark side?”

Marinette shrugged.  “Because he’s my boyfriend.”

Alya spluttered, and Kim offered her a fist bump, which she accepted.

“Good choice,” he said.  “Dude’s hot as fuck, and super nice.  I support you.”

“Thanks.”  Marinette smiled at him.

Alya rolled her eyes.  “I don’t know how you managed to convert everyone,” she said, sending daggers into the side of her boyfriend’s head, “but you’re not going to trick me.  I know what’s going on here.”

Marinette snorted.  “Did we really sound that crazy?” she wondered, and Kim laughed.

“I think we might have sounded even crazier,” he assured her.  
  


 

Alya didn’t know what was wrong with her friends.  She was the only strong one, the only one who hadn’t fallen prey to Nino’s trap.  Why he’d decided to make up a fake friend, and why everyone else had decided to go along with it, she had no idea.  But there was no tricking Alya C é saire, no sir e e!

But she’d promised not to bring up the dozens of stock photos in Nino’s house tonight and, since it was his birthday party, she’d had to agree.  As it was, she was pretty sure the dozens of people crammed into Nino and Kim’s apartment was solely to convince her that her boyfriend actually had real friends.

Speaking of her boyfriend, she glanced around the house, trying to spot him.

“Hey, Al!  I want you to meet someone!”

She turned at the sound of Marinette’s voice, briefly catching on the shit-eating grins on her best friend’s face, as well as Nino’s, Chloe’s, and Kim’s -- who was sporting his recently rainbow bedazzled crutches -- before it settled on the face of the person they wanted to introduce her to.  The person who was wrapped around Marinette in the way only a boyfriend would be.  The person that adorned unbought picture frames everywhere.

“You must be Alya,” he said, offering a hand for her to shake.  “I’m Adrien.”

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” she deadpanned, sending her friends an unimpressed glare before turning her gaze back to him.  “You’re real?”

Adrien looked confused, his eyes darting between everyone’s faces.  “Why does nobody believe I exist?”

**Author's Note:**

> And then Alya is convinced for years that they somehow managed to track down the Picture Frame Guy and pay him to go along with this whole scheme and still believes that "Adrien" is made up until she's at his and Marinette's wedding because clearly someone wouldn't go through with an actual legitimate marriage for a prank, would they?
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!  
> Please let me know what you thought in the comments or on my Tumblr at probably-voldemort!  
> And please leave koodos for my children to eat. They're hungry.  
> Thanks for reading! :D


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